Hazard
by Jageroux
Summary: Betrayed, he was deserted. Fighting, he survived. Enraged, he sought vengeance. He is the mercenary with a grudge. He is their worst nightmare.


A/N: Yo, Roxas, **now Deveroux** because I'm a fickle whore, here! So, here I am with another fic. Again, eh? Well, the shit ain't entirely mine, **Shedauwz** and I have decided to write a collab fic together. He is in charge of Natsu while I am in charge of Gajeel. Now, this is only Gajeel's prologue, as in it isn't the actual story. **Dauwz** will publish Natsu's prologue as well. Natsu's part is called Malevolence.

The actual story will be called **Malevolent Hazard** and it will be published on **my** account, so... if any of you guys are actually interested in this little project we have going on, please do go check out his part. The full story should be published around... no, you know what, I'm not going to give you a concrete date because life has developed a tendency to fuck us over. So yeah.

Link to Dauwz' story/Natsu's prologue: /s/9069787/1/

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Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Why? Because it's the Twilight of the mangaverse... and Mashima is the Stephanie Mayer. Why? They drag you in with their previous works that were amazing(Mashima with Rave Master) or at least decent(Mayer with the Host). See the similarities?

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_**Hazard**_

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The worst part of creeping through a deserted house was the pounding. The pounding that only you could hear and was aware of – you hoped. You could only hope that whatever lurked in the shadows of the barren building did not hear the rapid beating of your heart. But you could only think they could; that they could hear the organ beating against your chest as if it were trying to break free. It was unnerving, to think that at the drop of a hat, some infected human, if they could even be called that anymore, was going to hear your heart, jump out of a corner and kill you.

It wasn't exactly heartwarming.

A single man walked through the nearly pitch black house. He had long black hair with the bangs framing his face and crimson eyes; he wore a black sleeveless hoodie, a dark red dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up just above the elbows and the collar extended just underneath his neck, with black jeans and hiking boots. A gun holster was strapped to his thigh, being held there by two separate fastenings; extending from between his shirt and hoodie was a leather handle that belonged to knife, though the exact size of the weapon was hidden by the clothing. In addition to this, multiple piercings littered his body from his face to his arms, with a few scars on the appendages as well.

He held a single handgun and flashlight; his left arm, which held the flashlight, was bent in front of him and was pointing towards the opposite limb, crossing his chest, while the flashlight itself was held 'upside down' though the end result was the area in front of him being illuminated and he was able to use his left arm as a support whenever he shot with his right.

The man's name was Gajeel Redfox. He was, going off of what he knew, the ex-captain of EDOLAS's Delta Squad. It was pretty hard to think otherwise when said squad had been killed before being reanimated as undead corpses and the mercenary company, which was in charge of your team, left you to die.

He slowly crept through the house, his eyes darting from left to right as he made sure to remain aware of his surroundings, not wanting to alert anyone, or rather, _anything_ in the home to his presence. From simple assumptions he figured he was in the living room, or to be more accurate, what was left of it. Furniture had been overturned and destroyed; the TV had been bashed in, tables had been broken, lamps were left as nothing more than shattered and broken messes on the floor; the couch had been nearly ripped to shreds and multiple pictures rested on the floor, broken and slightly torn.

Gajeel walked over to one of the photographs that had caught his interest and he knelt down, holstering his gun, and picked it up. He grimaced when he saw it was damp with blood and he rubbed some of it off before shaking his head slightly, it was a family. Just from looking at the picture he could tell they were happy, smiles plastered across their faces as if the day the picture had been taken was the best ever. He sighed while shaking his head slowly, a family of five, _five_, wiped out. It was a combined effort, the infection and his bullets; before he entered the house he had encountered three of them and now he knew to be on the lookout for two more.

He dropped the picture before redrawing his gun while he looked around the room. What really got him was the blood, it was everywhere. Dripping from the ceiling; splattered across the walls; soaking into the torn sofa; it was horrid. The nauseating smell didn't help either even though he had been grown accustomed to the smell of corpses, but the problem was when said corpses walked around killing people. He carefully walked out of the room, peeking into the hallway before fully stepping into it first, and continued down the path, aiming to at least get to the kitchen. He made sure to move at a slow pace to prevent the floorboards from creaking as he progressed towards the kitchen.

His eyes widened when he heard wood breaking before he was ripped through the floorboard. He grunted when he made impact with the cold hard floor. He shoved his hand outward, taking note he didn't have his gun, when he felt drool dripping onto his face and wrapped his fingers around a rotting neck. He glared into the one pitch black eye that stared back at him, before swinging his left hand towards the eye, the flashlight slamming into the zombie's head and knocking it back. He scrambled backwards and quickly stood up as the zombie lunged at him once more. He stepped to the side and let it pass him up before kicking it in the back and knocking it onto its stomach. Before it had time to stand back up a fifteen inch steel blade impaled its head and stuck into the floor slightly; Gajeel ripped it out with a grunt before wiping the blood and grime off of the weapon using his pants before returning it to its sheath on his shoulder.

He stared down at the small body before shaking his head. A child. From looking he guessed 'he', it was hard to tell an exact gender, was about ten. He shook his head slowly as he looked away, not wanting to look at the remains of the child.

He scanned the room with his flashlight to make sure it was clear before quickly moving to retrieve his gun. He picked up the weapon and sighed as he made sure the safety wasn't knocked back on when it fell before he began walking towards the hole he was pulled through. He shined the flashlight up at it and figured he would be able to simply jump back up, or rather, pull himself back up seeing as how there wasn't that much distance.

Just as he was about to holster his gun he choked when a cold and slimy appendage wrapped around his neck and threw him across the room. He grunted when he hit the wall before rolling to the side when the tongue impaled the area where his head previously was. He came up into a kneel position, aiming his flashlight towards the source of the tongue and his eyes widened.

That _thing _had a quadrupedal build, standing on all fours almost like a dog. It had the body of a human, except it was bulkier; its arms almost looked inflamed from the disturbing growth, easily rivaling a regular human male's body in circumference; its legs were slender, only slightly smaller than its arms. The most disturbing part was the fact it had seemingly been turned inside out; its raw skin was a disgusting sight to behold, though the worst part was the fact its brain was clearly visible and had replaced its eyes. Instead of fingers, it had 10 inch claws that didn't look greeting at all and when it pulled its tongue out of the wall, Gajeel was able to catch a glimpse of its equally intimidating teeth.

The black haired man's eyes narrowed when he saw the monstrosity across from him lean back slightly and tense; he knew what was coming. He jumped to the side and rolled before coming up into another crouch when it leaped towards him while slashing, its claws ripping through what Gajeel assumed was a washing machine. He grit his teeth as he began to fire at it, cursing when he saw it barely had any effect on the thing.

It rushed towards him, slashing once more and he jumped to the side, hitting what he assumed was a dryer before ducking down as its tongue extended towards him, clearing almost half of the room in a second, and pierced the side of the appliance where his head was previously. He raised his gun and began to fire at the monster as it withdrew its tongue and he smirked when he saw he got a reaction from it when he hit its exposed brain in the form of it letting out a screech. It rushed towards him again, slashing wildly as he jumped over and rolled underneath furniture to keep away from it.

There was no way he could fight, much less kill the mutated monster in an enclosed space in what he assumed was the basement. He dodged once more, hissing when its claws grazed his stomach, drawing a small amount of blood, before firing at its exposed brain, causing it to stagger back. Gajeel instantly turned and ran towards the stairs that led to the upper level of the house; his breath quickened when he heard the blood thirsty screech the infected monster released along with the sound of its claws scraping across the floor. It was chasing him. He quickly cleared the stairs and slammed his shoulder against the door, knocking it open, just as a zombie lunged out at him, its rotten hands gripping his shoulder as it leaned forward to bite his neck.

He slammed his flashlight into its jaw in an attempt to knock it away to no avail but he managed to not get bitten. He danced with it slightly, managing to reposition where they stood, with the zombie's back towards the basement door, just as the mutated tongue burst through the zombie's chest, blood splattered blood across Gajeel's face and chest before the humanoid was ripped down into the basement where the sounds of crunching could be heard afterwards.

The black haired man instinctively took off running down the hall, jumping over the hole that he was ripped through into the basement, and made his way to the door as the mutated monster jumped out of the hole hot on his trail. He burst out of the door and instinctively jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the deadly spear like tongue that would have impaled him from behind. He rolled to the side as monster exited the door and jumped down to where he was, digging its claws into the dirt. He stood up, shoving his flashlight into his pocket while putting his gun in his left hand and drawing his knife with his right hand.

The man and mutated being circled one another before the infected monster lunged forward only to receive a roundhouse kick to the side of the head that knocked it to the side. It covered its head as Gajeel began shooting towards its weak spot before it extended its tongue and swung its head to the side, wrapping the mutated appendage around Gajeel's ankle before pulling its head back, effectively pulling the black haired man to the ground. It quickly jumped into the air before repositioning itself so it would be falling towards Gajeel.

The man began pulling the trigger rapidly, aiming to shoot its head while it was defenseless. Except the gun was clicking empty. He screamed when its tongue pierced his shoulder, nailing him to the ground as it landed on top of him. Gajeel stabbed into its chest, making it release a high pitched screech which almost made his ear drums burst. He ripped it upwards, only stopping when he felt its deadly claws pressed against his throat.

Shit.

He growled as he released the knife and used his right arm to push away the arm that the claw belonged to, ignoring the painful sting that came from it cutting into his throat. He yelled when it retracted its tongue and he pulled the knife out of its chest before rolling away into a standing position just as it extended its tongue into the ground, impaling the area where his head previously was.

He rotated the knife in his hand as they continued to circle one another. He didn't have any time to reload his gun which meant he was going to have to use the knife. It was an amusing sight, a mercenary fighting a mutated monster in a stereotypical suburb. Except said suburb was burning and in shambles. Cars had been overturned; houses had been looted and set aflame, and here he was, fighting a mutated freak.

He tightened his grip as they both rushed forward and he fell into a roll as it slashed at his head and he came up into a crouch while spinning, cutting the infected being's side only to receive a painful backhand that sent him flying. He hit a tree roughly, causing it to shake and litter him with leaves; he moved his head to the side just as the mutated tongue pierced where his head was previously. He smirked as he slashed towards the appendage, his knife cutting through it and the worst screech he ever heard filled the air.

He ran forward as the mutated being did the same, hate filling his eyes while the mutation let out a shrill screech. He jumped above it just as it slashed both of its arms forward in a horizontal motion and he spun mid-air in a corkscrew like motion before landing on its back. He yelled as he shoved the knife into its brain, making it release another long screech that eventually died down as all life left its being.

Gajeel stepped off of it while cracking his neck and returning his knife to its shoulder sheath. He emptied the gun's magazine, hissing at the pain in his shoulder before reaching into his pocket to grab another one. He looked over his shoulder when he heard a loud crash and fumbled for the magazine, sweating when he almost dropped it, before shoving it into his pistol. He stared wide eyed at the eight foot man; he was able to easily estimate the height seeing as how the man was bigger than him.

He wore a tight fitting tanktop, showing multiple scars and deformities, grey combat pants and boots. Attached to its right arm from the elbow down was a large four 'fingered' claw, the attachment's insides being blunt while the tip was bladed. Its face was the worst part, no doubt. Half of its face was covered by a diagonal leather mask while the rest was deformed, its one eye barely being able to see from the drooping and scared skin. It had a stitched scar underneath its single visible eye along with a few strands of white hair across its head.

The man growled as he rushed towards Gajeel, the black haired man's bullets bouncing off of his chest and face as he did so, before punching Gajeel in the face with his human arm. The black haired man was sent flying through the air before crashing against a car with a painful groan. He stared blurry eyed at the hulking figure as it reached down and lifted him into the air with its mechanical arm, squeezing the man painfully. Gajeel's scream echoed through the suburb as one, two and finally three of his ribs cracked from the pressure and he coughed up blood. He glared into its face as he reached over his shoulder and drew his knife before shoving it into the man's face and ripping it out quickly, making it release him. He hit the ground with legs that felt like jelly before shaking his head as he struggled to run away, the pain of his broken ribs making it a difficult task. He looked over his shoulder and gasped before turning away when he saw the man stalking towards him slowly, its mechanical hand closing and opening repeatedly.

Fuck.


End file.
